10.17.22
Copier Machines: The copy machines are getting a surprising lot of use these days with the students having Chromebooks. If the copiers are not functioning please do not try and fix them. Please reach out to Marie at 413 and we will have someone come down to look at the machine. Let’s not make a mountain of issues out of a molehill out of a problem.
Faculty Meeting and Professional Development Wednesday: This is a reminder that we have a faculty meeting scheduled for Tuesday afternoon immediately after school. We will follow that with our delayed start on Wednesday morning. Topics will include Open House expectations, duties, and training for participants as well as ALICE & grading discussions.
Bus Evacuation Drill: The district is required multiple times a year to practice a bus evacuation drill. This involves students properly exiting the back of the school bus. We will be holding this drill, weather permitting, on Wednesday morning upon student arrival.
Class Expectations Sheets will be reviewed by the Leadership Team during the week of 10/24 in preparation for Parent-Teacher Conferences on November 1, 2022. If you have not uploaded your expectation sheets to the Teacher Curriculum Drive please do so by this Friday, October 21st. I am attaching a link to the Expectation Template for your use. Please also make sure that your curriculum maps for your course are up-to-date and uploaded as well.
Parent-Teacher Conferences: This is a reminder that Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Tuesday, November 1st. We will have a session from 12:00 to 2:30 pm for all faculty and then a second session at night from 5:00 to 8:00 pm for academic staff only. Again this year, all meetings are virtual and if an academic teacher would like to be in the school for the evening sessions please let Mark know.
Grading for Equity Book Study: Wondering why SST is rethinking grading practices? Looking to learn more about equity-focused grading practices? Want to earn some PDPs while doing so? Then please sign up for the Grading for Equity book club! More details will be available through Teach Point soon, but participants can earn 15 PDPs for reading selected chapters, meeting with other participants once a month, and completing a short (1-2 paragraph) reflection at the end of it all. Copies of the book will be provided. Let John Scopelleti know if you have any questions!
STAGR Conference: The Virtual Conference on Standards, Targets, Assessment, Grading & Reporting (STAGR) is happening Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and all SST educators will have access to both the live and taped presentations! Click here to see a list of the conference program, which includes presenters like Ken O’Connor, Rick Wormeli, and a lot of actual educators. Please note: all times are in Central, so you need to add one hour to convert them to Eastern time. The taped presentations should be available in a couple of weeks. Let John Scopelleti know if you have any questions or if there are any presentations that particularly interest you.
Co-op:
Here is the list of the most current co-op students.
Attendance: It is very important that if a student is approved and on co-op, their attendance in PowerSchool reflects that. If a student is absent from co-op or doesn’t meet the required hours for that week, the Vocational Office will update their attendance accordingly based on their timecard.
The Data Download:
MCAS RESULTS: Our students continue to do well and that is a result of the efforts put forth by our students, their families, and teachers every day.
Our students' scores continue to outpace the state average:
ELA SST Average: 505.2; STATE Average: 472
MATH SST Average: 505.9; STATE Average: 486
SCIENCE SST Average: 502.7, STATE Average: 470
In comparison to our sending communities:
ELA - score of 505.2 5th out of 8 school districts - The score range is 498.8 -515.5
Math - score of 505.9. 5th out of 8 school districts - The score range is 493.2 - 518.9
SCI - score of 502.7 5th out of 8 school districts - The score range is 500.5 - 518.7
In comparison to other vocational & agricultural schools:
ELA - 7th out of 28. The score range is 493.1 -- 512.4 (Well done!)
Math - 2nd out of 28. The score range is 493.3 -- 511 (EXCELLENT!)
SCI - 6th out of 28. The score range is 487.5 -- 509.8 (Well done!)
However, more important to me is the students' SGP or Student Growth Percentile scores.
For those unfamiliar, these scores measure just what they say, a student's growth from where they were in 8th grade to how they tested last spring. Here our students excelled as well.
In ELA, SST saw an SGP average of 60%, which is excellent.
In Mathematics, SST saw an SGP average of 72.5, the 4th highest in the entire state.
Those students who did not pass the test last Spring will be attending extra tutoring for ELA and MATH with retake tests in early November. Science retakes will not happen until the very beginning of February.
Bravo to all!!
Mark
Final Thoughts: I believe that whiteboards are the greatest invention in education. I simply find them re-markable!